Larger than the Odes

I wanted to write you something.
Something to remind you
never to let them make you
believe that your story
could ever be summed up
in a tweet or a Facebook rant.
That the number of people
who have spoken your name
in their lifetimes is not a measure
of how well you have done
to make the world better
for the children.
That most of us have never
heard you cry but many of us
would recognize the light
of your soul if we saw it
replicated anywhere.
And we would thank you
for speaking the truth
through the tremors in your voice,
above the relentless call
for you to stop.

I wanted to write you something.
But I realized these are the things
I want to write to myself.
And that these words are
just echoes,
merely repeating, and weakly,
what you have gone ahead and done,

things that are louder
and reach farther
and arrive faster
than any mark on paper..